For many years, France has had fewer women in political life than most other European countries. -- Things have been changing in recent years, and made a quantum leap in 2007 with the composition of a new government in the aftermath of the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president and the election of a new lower house of parliament (Assemblée nationale). -- At present 107 women sit in the Assemblée nationale and 11 serve as ministers in the new government. -- One of the most remarkable is Fadela Amara, 43, who grew up in a large working-class family of Algerian origin in Clermont-Ferrand. -- Outrage at seeing, at the age of 14, officials protect a driver who killed her brother in an automobile accident led to an interest in politics, and soon after she became an activist. -- She helped found Ni Putes Ni Soumises ('Neither Whores Nor Registered Prostitutes'), a feminist organization that fights violence against women, in 2003. -- Nicolas Sarkozy's invitation to this well-known figure, solidly anchored in left politics, to join his government as secrétaire d'État for urban policy in the Fillon II government was one of his most startling decisions. -- In an interview that appeared in the July 12-18 Paris Match, translated below, Fadela Amara speaks about her decision to join the government and other matters.[1] ...
1. [Translated from Paris Match] Interview FADELA AMARA: "I DON'T BELIEVE IN FEMININE VALUES. THE ABUSE OF POWER IS NOT AN EXCLUSIVELY MALE DOMAIN. ON THE OTHER HAND, WE'RE NO DOUBT MORE PRAGMATIC THAN THEY ARE."
By Flore Olive ** The founder of Ni Putes Ni Soumises, now secrétaire d'état for urban policy, still speaks frankly ** Paris Match
No. 3034
July 12-18, 2007
Page 47 "Obviously, it was a surprise," she says when she describes the "unbelievable" conditions of her official start as a woman "in a hurry to get to work, to continue the fight." Her offices, still undetermined, were "homeless for three days," she says, long enough to find space for her team of ten people. A cabinet that reflects her convictions: both men and women, and racially diverse. In the end it's in this magnificent former colonial administration building, built in the 1930s, with walls covered with naïve paintings and one planisphere after another like so many invitations to travel, that Fadela found a home. From her office, she can see the French flag hanging from the balcony, so large that it blocks the window and, up the street, the Eiffel Tower. That, at least, she likes to look at. It's different from the towers she's used to seeing. "I like it here," she admits. "It's beautiful at night. I always say that beauty is important. The more beauty one sees, the better one feels." Her added value is that she knows her territory. She can respond to the énarques [graduates of the élite École nationale d'administration] who will dissect the papers she prepares by citing her experience of what doesn't work in urban policy. She was chosen for this sécretariat d'État because she's an activist. One that never stopped demonstrating, from the Marche des beurs (North Africans' March) in 1983 to the trip around France of Ni Putes Ni Soumises in 2003. And who has no intention of stopping. Now that you're in the government, will you still be able to make yourself heard? FADELA AMARA. I'm not there for show; I've always been a squeaking wheel, and I'll continue to be. Some people can wait fifteen years for the left to rebuild; as for me, I don't have the time. I am and will remain a woman of the left. The president of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, knows me and respects my for my identity, for what I've done, for my integrity. My squeaking-wheel side, I think he even appreciates it... Just as I appreciate his approach to politics, this something new that's happening, even if I don't share all [his views]. I wanted a translation into policy of the activist fight I've been leading through groups. That's why I've accepted entering the government, precisely in this secrétariat d'État. Because I think that you can't always remain outside. At first, you refused to become a member of the first Fillon government. What finally changed your mind? It wasn't an easy decision. At first, I thought that I was more useful at Ni Putes Ni Soumises. What convinced me is the context: I really felt in the president a will to change the situation, and then I looked at what was happening on the left. In particular, I was extremely shocked by the marginalization of Malek Boutih inside the Parti Socialiste. In my eyes, it's a scandal. I think that the leadership of the Parti Socialiste is really going astray, is totally abandoning its left values. I hope that they're going to wake up, begin to rethink the left. We've talked a lot about diversity in the course of these political debates. It so happens that the president of the Republic is making it concrete. That isn't happening on the other side. What do you hope to cause to happen in the neighborhoods? Everything. It's well known, there's no point in making up stories: in a lot of working-class neighborhoods, the values of the Republic no longer exist. I have put myself on the line and given myself the challenge of bringing the Republic back to them. These transversal policies affect just as much the employment question as they do those of education or transportation. We have to subsidize non-profit groups (associations), which have seen their budgets reduced like the wild ass's skin in recent years. [NOTE: In Balzac's La Peau de chagrin (1830), the protagonist receives a skin that grants desires but shrinks with each use, along with the life of the user. —M.J.] Women will have a preponderant role. During the urban riots, they came into the street to run after the kids. But later, they were sent back to their apartments and we pretended they weren't there. The reforms have to involve them. Does Christine Boutin, your tutelary minister, share this vision of things? Like me, Mme Boutin is very concerned about the question of the status of women. She has often evoked about what I'm talking about in saying that women have a role to play in the neighborhoods. Like me, she doesn't believe in the war between the sexes. We're going to do beautiful things together. Secular things. Your fight for women has been fundamentally based on secularity. How do you take the arrival of Father Petitclerc, a graduate of the École Polytechnique and an educator, in your secrétariat d'État? It doesn't cause me any problems to work with anyone at all, provided that the religious question remains in the private domain. I am deeply secular. With Ni Putes Ni Soumises, we've been in the forefront of this fight and leading it has put us in danger. For me, this is more important than a question of values: it's a social project that permits emancipation. All the efforts that will emanate from the secrétariat d'État will be secular efforts. Secularity does not imply a lack of respect for the freedom of conscience. I am a believer, but I am not going to bother anyone with that. You're one of 107 women in parliament and 11 in the government. Do you think that, in order to get ahead in politics, women should adopt masculine ways? What are the differences between a man in politics and a woman in politics? I'm going to be frank: I don't believe at all in feminine values. I don't think that a woman in politics is different from a man. Including in the relation she may have to power. The woman American soldier who was an accomplice in the torture of Iraqi prisoners in the prisons of Abu Ghraib, made this really obvious for us. She proved to us that the abuse of power is not an exclusively male domain. I believe, on the other hand, that women are perhaps a little more pragmatic than men. Because, as an inheritance from patriarchal societies, for quite a long time now, and this is still true today, they have had to manage two, even three lives at the same time. So I think that they have an acute sense of organization. During the last elections, we saw that public opinion is evolving, and votes for women. And that is really a great victory. Do the women in the government get along well together? Yes. I think there's a little solidarity because it's the first time for many of us. I saw, for example, some very touching things directed toward Rama Yade, who is very young. The other women in the government are very kind with her. So much the better, it's good to protect her, too. [NOTE: Rama Yade (as she is usually known; her full name is Ramatoulaye Yade-Zimet) was named secrétaire d'État charged with foreign affairs and human rights in Sarkozy's ministry of foreign affairs. Black and was born in Senegal, she is 30 years old. --M.J.] --
Translated by Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Department of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447-0003
Phone: 253-535-7219
Web page: http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu
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